Here are some tips from painting professionals for making the whole process of scraping paint much easier. These tips apply to both interior and exterior surfaces.

• Determine the type of paint already on the surface. It is important to learn whether or not it is lead-based. If lead is present, you’ll want to consider lead safety precautions.
• Use a drop-cloth. It will make cleanup a lot faster.
• Before starting the job, first survey the surface. Remove nails or anything used to hang pictures. This includes stables for holding up Christmas lights, broken plastic brackets for holing up cable, etc.
• Removing nails usually leaves a pucker, or raised area, of drywall around the hole. Scrape the raised area off and fill the hole with drywall (sheetrock) compound.
• For tape and stickers, use your scraping tool to catch an edge and remove it gently. Keep the scraping tool flat to avoid gouging.
• Clear any gouges that may be in wood or wall of loose paint and drywall flakes. If you are painting the wood, fill the gouge with wood putty. Let dry and sand smooth. If there are gouges in the drywall fill them with drywall (sheetrock) compound. After the compound dries, sand smooth. Paint with primer.
• Ensure your scraping tools are sharp. Sharpening can be done yourself with a flat file. Many professionals sharpen their scrapers many times even for smaller paint jobs.
• Scrape from every direction. Sometimes paint that does not come off scraping left to right will come off scraping the opposite way, or by scraping up and down.
• Keep the scraper flat to avoid gouging the wood.

Scraping is hard work but overall, it is the best choice for most paint removal situations. It is especially appropriate for situations where paint has blistered or peeled.